The problem is that there are alot of conditional ifs in place.
If someone lived through the era the computer was in common use. (as in they know how to use it)
If they are able to come into contact with that kind of computer. This is getting harder as people don't keep old things as much as they used to. (and sadly many parts and files are getting harder and harder to find and maintain as years go on)
If they can figure out stuff that admittedly is not user friendly by todays standards. (they also have to want to do so and have an active interest).
See what I'm getting at? There has to be a want, an inner curiosity and a means to act on it. The instructions on how to act on it help too.
I guess I can try to use myself on that template:
I was gifted a computer, sometime in 1999-2000 (I was about eleven), that's what I used until it broke in 2004 or so. Knowing what I know now, I could have easily remedied the situation. But at the time I had no clue what was wrong with it.
I was too afraid to open it because all I knew about it was that it was 'expensive' and if I broke it I was in deep shit (no more computer). But it kept making odd noises until one day it just wouldn't boot anymore. (that delayed my contact with learning about the innards by a good five years)
We took it to a local computer shop, they gave it a new power supply and installed Windows 2000 on it. Knowing what I know now, replacing Win98 with Win2k was a good move for stability, but now I know the problem was the hard drive (click of death).
At the time I didn't know where the hard drive even was inside the computer, I didn't know what one looked like. I had some vague idea from reading the manual that came with the old dell (imagine that a manual that tells you about the computer...)
Eventually I ended up getting another computer from my parents and they made it clear that this was the last one. Looking back, I know now, that we got ripped off big time (256MB of RAM in 2005).
After I got that new computer, there were no concequences in openning up the old one. That's the first time I took a good look inside a computer case. I took it apart and put it back together many times, it was like a puzzle. Eventually I learned what each part did and what was good and what was bad.
Then I began finding old discarded computers during bulk pickup days, I made some franken-machines of varying quality, but I had fun. Eventually I built my own and have several computers of varying age.
Without those experiences and drives I would never have ended up in this hobby. I'm willing to bet that many other VOGONS users have similar stories. Sort of an origin that got us into enjoying these old neglected machines and other orphaned technology.
Now the average person, who does not have these types of experiences, cannot appreciate these computers the same way that we do. All they see is 'golly what a long way we have come since Zork.'
A darker aspect is that because I began in 2000ish, I don't have any experience with anything much older than that (1997 is about my cutoff). I didn't have the opportunity to tinker with anything older than a Pentium. So when it comes to a computer older than that I can appreciate it because I assume it is somewhat like my newer ones, but I can barely use it. (I can navigate a command line, but forget about knowing anything about jumpers and stuff) By association I think that computers older than what I have are neat and cool. But I know that unless I come into a lot of extra storage space, time and cash, I won't be buying them, setting them up and learning how to use them anytime soon. That saddens me to some degree.
Now try to imagine imagine that darker aspect applied to somebody raised on tablets and ithings 😵
I apologize for the length, but I felt that was the best way to explain my reasoning and point of view.